The invention relates to devices known as terminal strips or barrier strips wherein a wire connection is made at the top of a block of insulating material by an element such as a screw, and a different type of connection; such as a solder joint to a printed circuit board, a quick connect, or a wire wrap; is made at another location such as the bottom of the strip. The invention is particularly adapted for printed circuit board connections.
Conventional terminal strips embody a fairly thick, comparatively rigid block of material such as Nylon. Openings are provided at regular intervals in the block to seat metal terminals which have screws inserted in the top for a wire connection. The terminal strip is identified by the center distance between the terminals. Typical examples are 0.325 inch, 3/8 inch, and 7/16 inch. Barriers on the block extend upwardly between adjacent terminals to prevent electrical arcing between the terminals. Some kind of connecting means such as a pin extends from the terminal below the block to make the second connection. In printed circuit board applications, this pin is relatively short and extends into, or no more than a short distance through, the printed circuit board.
The terminal strip block is formed in an intricate, expensive mold which is utilized in an expensive injection molding machine. Items such as fire retardent additive and color additive cause difficulty in the molding process.
At least one mold must be made for each size of terminal strip such as the 0.325 inch, the 3/8 inch, and the 7/16 inch strip mentioned above. In addition, terminal strips are sold in various lengths such as two terminals long to 36 terminals long. This difficult product mix must be handled either by sawing long stock blocks of plastic to the desired length or molding each length strip in a different mold. Molding to length for all possible sizes is economically prohibitive because of the staggering mold costs and set up time. The preferable alternative of sawing to length from a longer stock strip, and trimming and sanding the ends also adds considerable cost to the strip.